Education Commons^™

Research And Assessment Methods For Leadership Development In Practice, David M. Rosch, Lindsay J. Hastings

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

While the field of leadership education continues to grow in terms of number of programs, students, and associated professional educators, our rigorous understanding of the impact of these programs has continued to lag behind such growth. Many postsecondary leadership educators work on campuses and have graduated from masters-level preparatory programs that do not focus extensively on rigorous research/assessment methods and may, therefore, lack the background necessary for high-level work (Brachle et al., 2021; Rosch et al., 2017; Teig, 2018). As a result, researchers and program assessment staff often recognize the need to take their methodological development “into their own hands” …

When Science Journalism Is Awesome: Measuring Audiences’ Experiences Of Awe From Reading Science Stories, Asheley R. Landrum, Kristina Janét, Kelsi Opat, Heather Akin

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

In collaboration with professional science journalists, we conducted a national online survey (N = 2,088) to explore facets of awe as potential response states to science journalism and how audiences’ dispositional science curiosity may influence these response states. Our science journalist collaborators identified several “awe-inducing” articles as well as a “business-as-usual” article to use in the survey, and we measured participants’ experiences of awe using the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S). We replicated the factor structure of the AWE-S and found that participants’ generally experienced greater awe from reading the “awe-inducing” science articles compared to the “business-asusual” one. Only partial support …

Don’T Be Afraid To Eat The Whole Whale! Using Mixed Methods To Enhance What We Learn In Leadership Research And Assessment, Lindsay J. Hastings

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to identify proper uses for mixed methods in leadership research and assessment. This article will highlight research and assessment questions that are best served by mixed methods and will offer practitioner-friendly guides and examples for integrating quantitative and qualitative data to help eat the whole whale “one bite at a time.” Sound decision-making in the design, execution, and presentation of mixed methods studies and outcomes assessments not only produces better outputs, but greatly increases the likelihood of (a) publication in reputable journals, (b) sound program evaluation decisions, and (c) public consumption of study or …

Formfollows Function: Research And Assessment Design For Leadership Learning, L.J. Mcelravy

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

This article discusses how the design of research should follow the questions the study seeks to address. The article provides practical and diverse examples of broad research questions applicable to researchers or program architects and summarizes how different methods should be employed to respond.

I have been teaching “Research Methods in Leadership Education” for the past five years. The goal of the course is to help orient graduate students to leadership research and assessment, and for many students, I’m introducing them to social science research and assessment broadly. The beauty and challenge of engaging in leadership research and assessment is …